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Zack’s Sack: A Wrigleyville Mailbag, Vol. 4

Hello, and acquire to a fourth installment of Zack’s Sack, a BP Wrigleyville mailbag! It’s an additional large book this week. Find me during @beersntrumpets on Twitter to ask me questions. I’ll answer usually about anything.

Questions acted by Twitter supporters have been unedited for a consequence of annoying them utterly. Any similarities to other mailbags are coincidental, unless they seem to be shining pastiches of pronounced mailbags. In that case, it’s totally intentional. Let’s open adult a Sack.

As a basketball expert, we am well-qualified to answer this question. Durant is a good pristine shooter, and that’s a ability that doesn’t utterly interpret good to baseball. He’s roughly 7 feet tall, though, and his wingspan is tremendous, so I’m going to contend he, like many of his high NBA counterparts, would be ideal initial basemen (if they can, we know, locate a ball). But, also like his associate basketball players, he possess good recognition and physique control. Maybe outfield would fit him well.

“Do we see Wade Davis being used in a playoffs this year identical to a approach Chapman was used final postseason (multiple innings)?” — @BrennanCasey11

In short, no. Joe Maddon used Aroldis Chapman with desert since Chapman wasn’t going to re-sign with a club, and since a Cubs’ bullpen was descending detached in a latter half of a season. With a full line-up of good relievers and one of a many solidly constituted bullpens in a game, a Cubs would presumably be means to muster whoever fits a conditions best when it comes to high-leverage playoffs outs. Carl Edwards, Koji Uehara, and Pedro Strop would expected take many of those late innings before a ninth.

Other information that supports Davis’s normal use is Maddon’s roughly parodically regressive use of Davis so distant this season: he’s come in roughly exclusively in save situations. Plus, it’s usually so tough for a pitcher to do anything like Andrew Miller did final postseason, and even Miller seems to have paid for it in tired and ineffectiveness. The appearance of a “super reliever” has been severely exaggerated.

“What is a Cubs’ biggest need before to a non-waiver trade deadline?” — @Darth_Stout

Unfortunately, as many have forked out, there are few holes on a Cubs’ register that lend themselves to stuffing around trade. They unequivocally don’t need bullpen help, and there unequivocally aren’t margin positions that can be filled. Nabbing a starter would be a best gamble for improvement—I opined on a futility of trade conjecture here, though finished transparent my miss of reservations when deliberation trade for a top-line starter. If there are starters who would urge a Cubs in both a short- and long-term, they should positively perform trade Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease for them.

“what players would we many like to see play for a Cubs from a quite cultured viewpoint (so not automatically Trout). OF/IF/SP/RP” — @henrydruschel

Henry asked this since we tweeted about wanting Max Scherzer in a Cubs uniform, and we mount by that pick. Scherzer is an old-school starter in a few ways: he has a accumulation of good pitches, he is extreme on a mound, he has a flattering fun personality, and he’s one of a singular players who could go out and do something well-developed that no one has ever finished before on any night.

I also lamented a rain of Andrew McCutchen, who would have hold this mark by himself for several years. Others considered: Marcus Stroman, Dexter Fowler again, Manny Machado.

[Editor’s Note: This is Zack’s Sack for a reason, and that reason that is that we wish to besiege Zack’s opinions as most as possible. But we can’t resist: Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and, honestly, Aaron Judge are vivid omissions here.]

“1. Why do olives suck

2. You have to collect one Cub to prepare we a three-course meal. Who do we collect and why” — @StelliniTweets

They’re too damn salty, Nick. Olives, like mushrooms, are usually excusable in dishes that need that saltiness to turn out a flavor. Veggie pizza, mostly.

Really we would have anyone though John Lackey prepare me dinner, though would substantially give welfare to Kyle Schwarber. He’s a Midwestern guy, so we suppose we have identical tastes. Ben Zobrist famously fell in adore with a Z-Man sandwich from Joe’s Kansas City Barbecue (formerly Oklahoma Joe’s), so he’s adult there too.

“If splash influenced John Lackey a approach spinach influenced Popeye a Sailorman, how many beers would Lackey have to splash to be good?” — @GregLicked

As a producer wrote, “the extent does not exist.” Lackey would have to go on a three-week bender—a Miller Lite cleanse, perhaps—to be good again. His 2017 unequivocally has been bad. Oh ruin yeah.

Thanks, Greg, for a best Sack doubt yet.

“how many honourable All-Stars do a Cubs have during this indicate in a season?” — Nate Greabe, co-editor-in-chief BP Wrigleyville

Probably… two? Three? Kris Bryant, certainly. Wade Davis is deserving. You could make a box for Anthony Rizzo, though no other position players have stood out offensively adequate to make a cut. The starters have been bad. The 2017 NL group is going to demeanour a lot opposite than a 2016 version.

“Longtime listener, initial time caller. Hi we usually wish to know if we consider Schwarber will start mashing taters again shortly thanks” — @rschultzy20

If my eyes (and new box scores) are to be believed, afterwards he’s already socking large dongs again. In 38 Jun image appearances, he’s strike 4 homers and has a .250/.368/.688 line. The large child is back, baby!